Home > Ephemeris Program, Saturn > 05/26/2015 – Ephemeris – Saturn’s Rings

05/26/2015 – Ephemeris – Saturn’s Rings

May 26, 2015

Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 26th.  Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 9:15.   The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 3:01 tomorrow morning and tomorrow the Sun will rise at 6:03.

The feature that makes Saturn so special are its rings.  While astronomers have found rings around Jupiter Uranus and Neptune plus an asteroid, none are a grand a Saturn’s rings.  Saturn’s rings are made of ice or icy particles, and have a higher reluctance (albedo) than the planet.  Each of the ring particles has a separate orbit over Saturn, and the many collisions have restricted the ring particles to Saturn’s equator.  While the rings are 170 thousand miles wide they are only 30 feet thick. Saturn has an axial tilt of 26 degrees close to the Earth’s 23 ½ degrees, so over Saturn’s nearly 30 year orbit of the sun, the rings go edge on about every 15 years.  That last time was 2009.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Saturn's rings change.

How the appearance of the rings change as Saturn orbits the Sun. Credit: NASA Hubble.

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